Posts Tagged ‘witness’

The second level of the Cobra Breath opens a rarely used energy channel along the spine and helps to more deeply activate the roots of the Chakras, balance your polarities, activate and transmute karmic patterning, and begin to connect your spiritual pole with your earthly pole.

It is best that a student practice Cobra Breath 1 on a daily basis for at least a year before being initiated into Level 2 Cobra Breath. Some Western teachers push students into Level 2 Cobra Breath with only 40 days of Level 1 practice, often with much drama. This does a disservice to the student as there is inadequate preparation and follow-up support on a daily basis. Merely energetically activating one’s karmic patterns is no guarantee that they will be transmuted.

Like the central nervous system, the chakras have their roots in the spine. The second level Cobra Breath stimulates these chakric roots and therefore activates the domains of awareness, emotion, and actions governed by these chakras. Cobra Breath Level 2 can help clear the karma of the chakras, releasing repressed emotions / inner child issues to be Witnessed and processed.

It is imperative that a practitioner of Cobra Breath 2 have a well defined Witness consciousness and be able to be self-responsible. If not, the Level 2 Cobra Breath will merely exacerbate these karmic patterns, creating more misery and drama in one’s life.

Muscular Armoring

Bioenergetic holding patterns or armoring are the somatic aspect of our repressed emotional karma. We repress or “hold” back our emotional responses to avoid external reaction to negative emotional triggers. This energy is stored as tension in the body, but is not quiescent. On the contrary, these held patterns will run in the background of our consciousness, affecting our perceptions, mental / emotional states, and behaviors. This results in our patterns being recreated continuously, often creating a victim consciousness which will tend to make us more emotionally reactive and defensive. Cobra Breath will not necessarily clear these patterns without Witness and processing. Some somatic work such as T’ai Chi, Qigong, yoga, Rolfing, and Somatic Release along with Presencing, Conscious BreathWork, or Bioenergetic Analysis, etc. can be helpful in rooting out these patterns thus releasing the stored emotional energy to be acknowledged and understood.

Balance

The 2nd Level Cobra Breath allows solar / cosmic energy to descend into the body through a specific channel, awakening the chakras, and balancing the male and female energies.

There are 5 major energy channels or nadis in the spinal region. Four of these are polar channels (male and female, or yang and yin) and these must be cleared and kept in balance to provide a strong, safe “containment vessel” for true Kundalini to arise. If not, unresolved emotional history can be activated, causing disruptive emotional crises and sometimes physical discomfort or injury.

Contraindications

As in Cobra Breath 1, there are definite prerequisites and contraindication associated with being truly eligible to integrate the power of the Second Level Cobra Breath practice. Some signs that you need to dig deeper before accepting this initiation are:

-Blaming others

-Taking things personally

-Depression

-Rage / Anger

-Anxiety / Neurosis / Obsession – Compulsion

Prerequisites / Guidelines for Sadhus

Some good guidelines to assess your readiness to incorporate Second Level Cobra Breath into your sadhana include:

Your pain is the breaking of the shell
that encloses your understanding.
Much of your pain is self-chosen.
It is the bitter potion by which the
physician within you heals your sick self.
… Therefore trust the physician, and drink
his remedy in silence and tranquility.
– Khalil Gibran

Swadhistana, the second chakra, may be the favorite of neo-Tantriks, hedonists, and those reveling in emotional drama. Swadhistana governs the emotional realm, more specifically; one’s unconscious and unresolved emotional karma which can be entangled with one’s sexual energy and life force.

The duality of the second chakra balances pleasure seeking with pain avoidance. By pain, I mean emotional pain e.g., unresolved trauma, sadness, and loss. Now, everyone will feel at least a hint of sadness from time to time, sadness being an authentic core human emotion. What makes a huge difference is how conscious we are about the roots of our suffering.

Pleasure, of course, is often thought of as the “antidote” to pain. This is not as cut and dried as it might seem. Pure pleasure and pure pain i.e., agony and ecstasy, are rarely experienced in an absolute form by any given individual in the human world. There is often a spectrum or melding of these polarities. This is where the emotional experience of bitter-sweetness derives from. One can be experiencing a pleasurable feeling and yet also have it tinged with sadness and poignancy.

Pleasure and sex are often vigorously condemned by puritanical cultures and fundamentalist religions across the world. However, there are certainly theories and philosophies that claim that pleasure can set you free, or is your birthright. This is not a very popular paradigm for fundamentalists, dictators, and authoritarians in general. Guilt and fear just make people so much easier to control.

Sadness / loss / loneliness

Language… has created the word “loneliness” to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word “solitude” to express the glory of being alone. – Paul Tillich

Sadness / loss / loneliness combined with a bit of the “glue” of fear will tend to result in some degree of depression. Depression is a process of suppression, a locking down of one’s life force. When your chi is vital, lively, and dynamic, as it is when doing qigong or having a blissful meditation session, it is impossible to experience depression. It is interesting to note that many of the antidepressants e.g., Fluoxetine, developed by big Pharma tend to suppress the vital energy (jing ching) of a person, while attempting to medicate away the listlessness of depression. The price one pays for pharmaceutical management of depression may often be impotence or the loss of sexual interest. Perhaps psychiatry should return to body-centered psychotherapy instead of 5 minute appointments to prescribe palliatives. Conversely, activating one’s sexual energy in a way that results in a satisfying full-body orgasm may alleviate depressive states. Does better sex = better mental health? I think I’d try that prescription first.

In truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight. – Kahlil Gibran

Primal scream therapies and neo-tantric Kundalini practices that push a lot of energy into the Swadhistana chakra tend to hyper-stimulate the emotional issues resident there. Depending on the ratio between transmutation and irritation of the karmic energy, re-grooving of the karmic patterns and potential detriment may occur. Some of the energy may be blown off, in a cathartic frenzy, but the excessive amounts of vital energy pumped into the karmic pattern can simultaneously strengthen the “software” managing the suppression of unconscious emotional pain, thus reinforcing our sense of victim-hood.

The Cobra Breath is one of the most powerful tools for spiritual awakening on the planet. Originally transmitted by the MahavatarBabaji, Cobra Breath is an advanced, powerful Kriya method for transmuting primal energy that can lead to Cosmic Consciousness and Self Realization in one lifetime. It has been said by Kriya masters that a million disease-free years are needed to evolve a human mind capable of experiencing Cosmic Consciousness. Cobra Breath practice enables one to move at a greatly accelerated pace as one repetition of the Cobra Breath is equal to one year of spiritual practice.

Cobra Breath Kundalini

The Cobra Breath is an esoteric, sacred tradition only transmitted orally from teacher to student through direct lineage from Babaji. The true Cobra Breath has never been written down or recorded. When receiving Cobra Breath, it is important to be properly prepared and have an appreciation of this gift when being initiated. Cobra Breath is a powerful method for quickly opening Ajna (the third eye). As this center is awakened, you become able to perceive reality as it really is (through witness consciousness), rather than our usual manner (maya.)

Witness consciousness is the ability to maintain our center in the midst of emotional upheaval and is essential to any advanced practice of Kundalini. Witness helps us see beyond the unconscious beliefs, early childhood patterning, judgments, and trauma, to the Divine within all of us. This brings light to our dark aspects, thus speeding our spiritual development.

The Cobra Breath pulls Shakti energy into the secret Kriya Channel, charging the spine with energy and changing the electro-magnetic properties of the cerebro-spinal fluid, allowing Kundalini to move up the spine and activate the third eye. The nervous system is transformed and you awaken to higher consciousness.

Prerequisites / Guidelines
Now, I want to be clear here. Cobra Breath is not for everyone, certainly it is not for beginners. I have seen a lot of grief and drama occur in persons not authentically prepared for this high level practice. What you are unwilling to transform within your subconscious will be reinforced by any true Kundalini technique. The Taoists sometimes call this “circling the midplane.” You have to be ready to let go of that which no longer serves your higher interest. The readiness of any given individual has to be assessed by a teacher in person. Here are some general guidelines:

— Transmute your Karmic patterning
Karmic Patterns are old habits based on early childhood and adolescent trauma and imprinting. We accrue these patterns from our parents and family, persons we associate with in life, even birth trauma itself. Karma burning is best accomplished through deep meditation with a guru and, to some extent, through body centered psychotherapy such as Bioenergetics. Truly understanding and transmuting the held energies of of our Inner Child is essential. This requirement alone eliminates the vast majority of people.

— Become Self-Responsible
Most people never do this. We prefer to see ourselves as helpless victims of circumstance and the actions of others. “You hurt me” “that thing you did made me so angry”; these “you” statements are an attempt to project responsibility onto others, thereby avoiding the hard work necessary to empower ourselves to take responsibility for our thoughts and emotions. If we blame others, we can never own our emotions and master our Self.

— Be Present
We live in anticipation of the future while repressing aspects of our past that we don’t like. We shuttle back and forth between past and future, robbing ourselves of our life and re-creating old patterns of being. As Einstein once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” Allowing our thoughts to travel indiscriminately between past and future is the scam we use to avoid doing our spiritual work and thereby staying in our dysfunctional comfort zone. True creation and spiritual evolution occur only in the moment.

There are many practices that can achieve the above goals. However, not all spiritual roads have the same speed limit. Given that the practitioner is authentic in their sadhana, the pace of awakening will depend on the level of consciousness of the individual, efficacy of the technique(s), outside cultural and interpersonal influences, and the amount of time invested. Some preparatory rules of thumb:

Hatha Yoga: at least 3 years of daily practice, 1 hour or more per day. Some Masters require 12 years. Hatha yoga alone is not enough, one must be able to enter into deep states of meditation while staying totally present.Breathwork is also essential.

Tantric Qigong / T’ai Chi: 1- 3 years of non-martial oriented practice, along with meditation. Bioenergetic analysis and Breath work can be very helpful when done in conjunction with this training.

Kundalini Yoga / Chakra Yoga: most forms now taught in the West require several years of training and daily practice. This practice is not well grounded, so one needs to master some T’ai Chi,Tantric Qigong, and Bioenergetics.

Contraindications
As I stated above, most people are not going to be ready for Cobra Breath in this lifetime. Even some who are teaching Cobra Breath have not fully prepared themselves, and thus pass on their kundalini-energized dysfunctions to their students. I have observed many astounding examples of this occurring. Here are some warning signs that a person is not yet prepared:

— Blaming others: A person who feels they are victimized and others are at fault is a sure sign of that person not being ready.

— Taking things personally: Like the above, we feel others are directing their “stuff” at us. Another’s drama has nothing to do with us, yet the ill-prepared student will perceive this as an attack and take it in, setting off a host of defensive mechanisms.

— Depression: Depression is a suppression of life force. It is the “flight” portion of the animal “fight or flight” response. Cobra Breath will just create more sadness.

— Rage / Anger: This kind of person is heavily invested in the “fight” part of the “fight or flight” response. Usually this kind of person blames others, though if he or she turns this energy inward, the ensuing self-judgment will begin to affect one’s energy system, mind / emotions, and the physical body, often creating a dangerous and unstable condition. This also holds true for highly manipulative control freaks.

— Attraction to Catharsis: Neo-tantric and the now discredited Primal Scream therapies are disadvantageous practices with regard to Cobra Breath in particular, and attaining self knowledge in general. Karma merely circles the midplane and becomes even more ensconced within the psyche as it is reinforced by the indiscriminate stimulation of this high level energy. This “letting off steam” feels like a “breakthrough” to some people, but long term observation tends to reveal that not much changes. Drama Queens and Kings who practice this are poor candidates for Cobra Breath. I am continually amazed at the number of false neo-tantric teachers who recommend this process. Suicides and false memories of childhood trauma have been linked to practicing Primal Scream and catharsis.

— Anxiety / Neurosis / Obsession – Compulsion (OCD): Fear and its compensatory mechanisms bind up large amounts of primal energy. This bound energy has nowhere healthy to go. Adding more energy with the Cobra Breath will just increase the frenzy, tipping an individual into increasingly unhealthy states of being.

Energy Idiot-Savants: I have heard some faux teachers of Cobra Breath make statements to the effect that “only those who are prepared will be attracted to Cobra Breath.” This New-Ageism is totally fallacious. I certainly have seen persons who are attracted to Cobra Breath significantly harm themselves physically and/or mentally by insisting they are ready when they are authentically not. Usually, an unprepared person will not get much from Cobra Breath. It just doesn’t work for them. I believe this is a kind of built-in protection for the “innocent”, just like a baby would not be able to drive a truck. They’re just not big enough to reach the ignition, steering wheel, and pedals, so nothing happens.

Occasionally though, an “energy idiot-savant” may get their hands on the Cobra Breath. This is a very tricky situation. The “idiot” part has not achieved sufficiently deep inner transformation to be healthy and ready for Cobra Breath Initiation, while the “savant” portion can be surprisingly adept at moving the Kundalini energy. This is a sort of “irresistible force meets an immovable object” conundrum and big drama and potential harm can occur. This can be partly ameliorated by living in an ashram with your teacher, or at least having regular contact, support, and instruction. Thus, attempting to receive Cobra Breath long-distance, or in a one-shot weekend workshop without regular support can either be dangerous or ineffective in the long run.

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly. –Buddha

What moment do we have other than this?

The past is an illusion long gone. The future is not yet made manifest.

Each moment of our lives lands as a dew drop upon the lotus. Delicate, unique, irreplaceable. To look upon it with full attention and unfettered gaze reveals its precious and inimitable perfection. This magic moment, a crack between past and future, is an Infinity of existence; never seen before, and never to be seen again.

Can we not Be as the lotus enveloping the drop?
Does the lotus analyze and compare?
Is the lotus anticipating the dew drops yet to be?
Or does it embrace this diamond – liquid, delicate, and evanescent, and open its petals to experience the All?

Can you recall in your life a sudden revelation of beauty, deep serenity, a spontaneous awakening to Unity, excitement, joy, and vibrancy that stilled your mind and opened your heart? Ever ponder how you were able to perceive this flash of Shangri-La secreted between your history and your expectations? What is the Secret to reentering this often all too brief state of acceptance and Bliss?

Flow with whatever is happening and let your mind be free. —Chuang Tzu

The key is to both embrace and let go of each moment simultaneously. To participate and witness at the same time. In doing this, it is perfectly possible to create a Zen-like process of attentiveness to, and reverence for, your everyday experience. Being Present to the experience of our life, moment by moment, can help awaken our capacity for extraordinary joy, freedom, compassion, and creativity.

There is a way between voice and presence
where information flows. –Rumi
This process of freeing ourselves from our patterns, habits, compulsions, and unconscious drives is often referred to as “burning karma.” Our karma is the result of our actions, experiences, thoughts, emotions, and expectations. Our personal history is comprised of habits and subconscious drives which shape and maintain the prison of the small self in which we reside. We are at once the architects, wardens, and inmates of this institution. Unless we pardon ourselves for the crimes of complacency and inattention to our Higher Self, we will impose a life sentence upon ourselves.

Deliverance from the prison of our karmic patterning is an essential process for achieving the mastery of true emotional freedom and self-realization. In freeing ourselves from these self-imposed strictures, we develop the skills to create anew, rather than re-create over and over again what no longer serves the growth of our spirit. This freedom from karmic patterning results in self-knowledge, wisdom, and being Present with the Sublime.

We get to choose each moment and how we want to live in it. How do you want it? Realize that every moment is IT…It all comes down to Presence. Being present in the moment…And Love. –Bhagavan Das

Find an object – a burning candle, a flower, a dew bespeckled spider’s web. Still your mind and observe. What do you perceive? Use all your senses. Maybe write down your observations. Give yourself lots of time, don’t rush about with mental questing. Open yourself to the experience and to your observations. What do you notice? Take a deep, conscious breath and observe again. Pay attention with your mind. Assimilate with your body. What do you feel?

Q.Heather42 asks: Just checking, but you do realize these are similar to symptoms of heart attack? Some preliminary heart attack events do not necessarily involve chest pain, and/or the person can be asleep during the chest pain phase. The time frame of early morning, abdominal tingling, and immobility, especially of arms, are all classic symptoms associated with heart attack. Has Scott had his heart checked lately?

A. Rev. Hall: Thank you for your concern. I am sure that Scott appreciates it. Perhaps at his next physical, an EKG could be run to rule out any atypical cardiac abnormalities. Though it seems unlikely, it would do no harm to have a test run. I am not a physician, so I cannot speak to whether there is a rare cardiac symptomatology that would match the experience Scott is having. The experiences Scott is having are rather common for those who are having quasi – Kundalini or Shakti Prana experiences, but seem rather atypical for cardiac problems. To further delineate:

1. No Pain: Typically, though not always, a cardiac event will entail angina often radiating down the left arm. Though there are cases of cardiac events where patients do not recall any pain, Scott claims numerous Kundalini experiences, distinctly remembered, never with any angina or arm pain.

2. Pleasure: Scott recounts how these events are quite pleasurable to him. This is quite common among meditators who are moving Shakti Prana ( Shakti Kundalini ) and have low fear and karmic resistance to this bioenergy movement. The pleasurable sensations also can become distinctly Tantric in nature for some people. I have never heard of any cardiac events described this way.

3. Creativity: Scott says “When I wake up I feel different, slightly energized, slightly creative.” This state of feeling quietly energized and creative is routinely reported by practitioners of Kriya Kundalini techniques, especially with Tumo and Cobra Breath. It seems to be one of the hallmarks of Shakti Prana as the energy moves into the higher Chakras, especially Ajna ( the Third Eye. )

4. Paralysis: Scott: “I am a sleep or half asleep when it happens 4:30 to 6:00 (AM)…it is never painful but pleasurable, I have tried to move my arm to share it with my wife, but generally can’t move (my) arm, except once, I am awake at this point trying to enjoy and understand it. “

As I understand Scott’s description of this aspect of his experience, it is likely that he is having what sleep researchers call “sleep paralysis”, a state often linked to lucid dreaming and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. When it occurs in REM sleep it is called REM atonia. This state is characterized by paralysis shortly after waking up (hypnopompic paralysis) or, shortly before falling asleep (hypnagogic paralysis). This happens when the sleeper is awakened from an REM state into a fully awake state, causing the person to be aware, but unable to move.

In the yogic tradition, this state is thought to be the “dream body” separating from the physical body, where out-of-body travel might occur. It is thought that one of the stages of the journey to enlightenment is “witnessing sleep,” being lucid and in a state of Witness Consciousness while asleep. A variation of this is present when you are in an authentic state of Yoga Nidra. Not the “Yoga Nidra” class you are taking at the strip mall yoga center with 10 other people, but the real deal, the Yoga Nidra based Theta states that are well known to and taught by Yoga Masters.

There is also a Hindu mythos that Rakshasas (Hindu demons) attack persons in this state to hinder their progress towards enlightenment. This pertains to those who experience a fear reaction in this state and is, in my opinion, an anthropomorphic external projection of the internal experience. That is, we create an external threat out of our internal fear. This can seem quite real.

5. Tantric and sexual in nature: Scott has stated: “It is very intense when it happens, it feels like an orgasm but different.”

Scott is experiencing a mild variant of the “full body orgasm” first discovered in the West by Wilhelm Reich. As we are able to let go of our neuroses, (our fears, frustrations, physical tensions, stress, our karma) and activate our life force ( Qi, Chi, Ki, or in this case Shakti Kundalini ), we can attain a highly charged energetic state of non genital full body orgasm which floods the entire body and psyche. In a kind of feedback loop, the orgasm itself then continues to release old neuromuscular tensions in the body (somatic karmic patterns).

This is cultivated in Tantra and is predicated on one’s ability to both charge the body with life force AND surrender to its flow. In Scott’s case, it is happening spontaneously after being relaxed by a full nights sleep, which lowers psychic and somatic karmic resistance. For many men, morning is a time when Tantric sexual energy can peak due to elevated testosterone, and a relaxed, rested state. Being able to share this with a partner in an awakened Tantric or Kundalini state (somatically and spiritually), can amplify the experience and one can attain ecstatic, transpersonal, often mystical states of awareness while speeding your liberation from your karmic patterns ( karma burning ).

When we include T’ai Chi, the various form of Qi Gong (Tantric Qigong, Chi Kung, Chi Gong Chi Gung), and Taoist Sexology, this tradition encompasses all of the important Yogic techniques while adding Taoist grounding technology. Taoist Grounding gives us access to the tremendous strength and stability of the planet. It allows us to become a spiritual warrior, affording us the empowerment to deal with our own internal demons and external stresses. We can have our cake and eat it too: becoming able to reach the heights of spiritual bliss while walking in the world.

Taoism does differ greatly with some teachers of Tantrism in its approach to processing Karma. While some techniques encourage cathartic emotional release, Taoism recognizes that this approach has little long-term benefit for most people, and can actually be harmful. The Taoist call it “circling the Midplane” Aggressive energy stimulation for catharsis is predicated on:

2. Fully releasing this energy physically, emotionally, and mentally, and

3. Being able to hold “Witness Consciousness” to observe yourself re-experiencing a given pattern and how it has affected and controlled your life.

This is a tall order and unlikely for the practitioner to be truly successful at. Although the catharsis can feel effective, even blissful immediately afterward, the patterns tend to re-assert themselves over the long haul. If you have one unit of ability to release and witness, and you activate 3 units of emotional trauma, you have effectively reinforced the karmic pattern by a factor of 2. Recognizing that often “less is more,” Taoism tends toward working on grounding and strengthening empowerment while allowing karmic patterns to rise into consciousness more gently and naturally. The BodyMind can then more easily witness and integrate this experiential knowledge without the potential perils of a more aggressive energetic assault.(c) 2006 Keith E. Hall. All rights reserved.

Bioenergetics Originating with Alexander Lowen, and based on the work of Wilhelm Reich, Bioenergetics contains aspects of both Western and Taoist practices. Like the masters of the East, Reich identified the primordial energy that resides within us (Qi, Chi, life force, Ki) and links us to the cosmos and called it “Orgone“. As fascinating a character as you’d ever want to meet, Reich was able to concentrate the Orgone and use it for everything from healing cancer to making it rain. He once ticked off Freud by claiming that one’s analysis wasn’t complete until one was able to have a full body orgasm. Reichian and Neo-Reichian based techniques recognize the central role played by activating and amplifying these core energies, however they differ in the order of opening the various components of the BodyMind to these energies.